Vermont Farm Women

Nationally, women are the largest—and fastest growing —group of people buying small farms. Some figures indicate that in ten years 75% of American farmland will be owned by women. In a beautiful companion volume to his classic Vermont People and People of the Great Plains, Peter Miller’s VERMONT FARM WOMEN puts faces and stories to these statistics and shows that this small rural state is setting a national trend. Within the group of forty-four Vermont farm women profiled in these pages, tremendous variety exists among the crops they grow and harvest, the animals they breed and raise, and the products they create. Yet all share a spirit of independence and common concerns such as keeping the land open, healthy and productive; nurturing animals; producing clean and healthy food; and serving their neighbors and their community. In the face of a growing agribusiness intent on controlling the global food supply, you could call them working activists. VERMONT FARM WOMEN is a 144-page, hardcover book containing 110 photographs, mostly portraits and some stunning panoramic images. All of the photographs are in black and white. "I believe this is my most important book," said Miller," because it indicates a revolution back to the small farms, which started in Vermont, spread to Maine, Pennsylvania and the West Coast. There is a humanity in the way farm women relate to other people through what they produce. Agriculture is more of a calling to these women than a way of making a living. " Miller has also initiated The Vermont Farm Women Fund, to help owners of small farms and to educate people about the importance of women in agriculture. The fund is being organized and implemented through the Intervale Farm Community in Burlington, Vermont.